Group eyes street revamp

FAYETTEVILLE — City officials, residents and design firm consultants met Thursday to begin a yearlong planning process to transform College Avenue into the city’s hub for urban development.

Officials organized the College Avenue Plan Steering Committee kickoff meeting to give an introduction of how the city and design firm consultants will work with the public, said Garner Stoll, Fayetteville development services director.

The city approved a contract with RDG Planning + Design of Omaha, Neb., last month, enlisting RDG to develop a plan to revamp the U.S. 71B corridor, according to the vendor contract. RDG consultants will determine and address problems with U.S. 71B, such as unappealing aesthetic factors and unsafe pedestrian situations.

The plan will affect development along College Avenue from North Street to Lake Fayetteville, Archibald Yell Boulevard from Rock Street to South School Avenue, and South School Avenue to Cato Springs Road. Officials expect this project will become integrated into the city’s comprehensive land-use plan City Plan 2040, said Harry Davis, city planner.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan welcomed the committee, many of whom are local business representatives, who he said will be instrumental in creating a plan that ensures economic growth and prosperity in the city.

“I asked this steering community to develop a shared vision for the corridor that unites business with property owners with adjacent neighbors,” Lioneld said.

Stoll thinks the stretch needs to evolve to become

more than an average highway, he said. It should offer a “sense of place” or an environment that attracts people for more than its commercial destinations.

Residents will have multiple opportunities to provide comment and participate in the planning process, starting with a public kickoff event Sept. 12-13. RDG consultants have been tasked with educating residents and inviting them to participate in the process through on-site and online activities, according to the vendor contract.

Marty Shukert, RDG principal planner, hopes to prepare the community for change so they don’t react negatively to “the vision of a distant future,” he said at the meeting.

“The process of building a corridor like 71B is an incremental process,” he said. “It happened over time, slowly by individual decisions, and it will change by individual decisions as well.”

RDG consultants plan to present an initial concept plan to the public in March and a final plan to the Planning Commission and City Council in May, said Cody Scott, RDG senior partner.